Thus far I have given you - for
your searching consideration - seven hints. I intend to give you no more than these
seven, because what you now have will prove adequate for many years of study. Each of
them, in fact, could provide the theme of a book, and the search for their meaning will
take all that you have of mental and intuitive perception. The significance which is
immediately apparent is the one which probationary disciples can well see, grasp and
appreciate. Disciples can, however, arrive at much deeper significances, and it is to
these that the group attention is now called.

Let me point out that the apparent significance is applicable to the training and the
unfoldment of the individual aspirants, and is therefore in line with the ancient use of
hints by the Masters of the Wisdom. But the deeper meaning (for which you must search) is
not so easily seen and is concerned with hierarchical impression, involving necessarily
ashramic intention and its precipitation in service. It is here that the Points of
Revelation are to be found of prime importance, and the reason why I am laying much
emphasis upon this little-understood theme of revelation.

As you already know, a hint is susceptible of many interpretations, according to the
point in evolution and the grade of the disciple. A Master can gauge a disciple's ability
to pass onward and arrive at his attained status by his mode of handling a hint. In the
preceding instruction I posited for you a series of questions relating to the subject of
hints, but I did not tell you that they were in the nature of a test. They were framed in
words that appeared to make them of general and personal application. Did you deal with
them as such? There was no need to do so and (if you have truly understood what I have
indicated re hints) you must have wondered why the questions were drafted in that
particular form; you would then have proceeded to consider their themes and the answers
required from the standpoint of the [355] Ashram, which is not the standpoint of the
individual. I know not what you did. I can only hope for your right approach. If - to
illustrate - you interpret the sixth hint, which states among other things that "my
one effort is to indicate relationship between initiation and revelation," by
pondering upon the initiation which you believe lies ahead of you as an
individual, and the consequent revelation which will then be made to you, then you will be
functioning as an aspirant and not as a disciple. If, however, you sensed no matter
how dimly, that each initiate-group enriches the ashram with its invoked revelation, you
will then be arriving closer to the desired consciousness.

For your
instruction, I propose to take these seven hints and - in this instruction and the next -
I will "open up" the hint for you and try to show you a little (not all) that a
hint, rightly approached, can convey. As I do so, it will become apparent to you that you
must always have in mind three things:

A hint today will concern the group - its interrelation, its fusion, its initiation and
its service.

A hint is intended to teach you something new in your experience, even if - as a
theory - it may seem quite familiar to you.

A hint, like all else in the occult teaching, is capable of seven interpretations which
can roughly be divided into three. These three are that of the probationary disciple or
aspirant, that of the accepted disciple and that of the Master or the higher initiate.
That interpretation which I will indicate to you will concern the meaning which it has for
the accepted disciple, and therefore its meaning for those of you who read these words.

The probationary disciple can arrive at the significance of a hint as it can be
understood in terms of the three worlds, i.e., its physical application, its emotional or
devotional expression, and its mental formulation; the disciple must interpret and apply
it in terms of the Plan, of directed energy and [356] of the Ashram, as it exists as the
servant of humanity. If you will endeavor to arrive at this attitude and also at a spirit
of true self-forgetfulness, you will assuredly learn much. I shall not be able to give you
full and adequate interpretations or write you at length upon each hint, but I will give
you enough to enable you to go deeper into significances than would otherwise be possible.
Because we are considering the seven rays, do not waste your time attempting to assign the
seven hints to the seven ray influences or to the seven principles. Disciples on all the
rays can work with these hints in terms of the seven rays, if they so choose; but these
seven terms of ray interpretation have to be used on each hint, a task which is too great
for our present endeavor. These seven hints are used in all Ashrams as teaching measures,
and when I first gave them to you (scattered through the papers during the past few years,
beginning in 1941 and more definitely isolated for your reflection since 1945) I did not
mention this fact. You can see, however, the richness of the contribution of the disciples
since the inauguration of the new technique. Since that time, disciples in all the
Ashrams, and therefore on all the rays, delved into meaning and arrived at revelation. Ihave given you these seven hints in their simple modern rendering. I will try and give
them to you in their more esoteric presentation, as they are thus preserved in the
Archives of the Hierarchy.